Mr. Lin was in a hurry to catch fire, suddenly saw the arrival of Mr. Fu, naturally full of joy, took out two dollars and instructed Zhang Bo: "Take good care of him, don't be stingy with what you should give, I have something to do, I'll leave first."

  "Mr., I'll get it done for you properly."

  After seeing Mr. Lin off, Zhang Bo asked the night soil collector, "Little Chen, how did you get here?"

  The man dressed as a nightsoil collector was none other than Chen Zikong, who had changed into a dirty and tattered outfit, wore an old cotton hat, and carried a wicker basket on his back, looking vastly different from the neat and tidy rickshaw puller he normally was. No wonder Mr. Lin hadn't recognized him, but Zhang Bo was not so easily fooled.

  Chen Zikun said: "The night soil collectors on our street are really unbearable, I was so angry that I took matters into my own hands. I heard that you were looking for someone to collect the night soil everywhere, and I thought that collecting one household's waste is the same as collecting two households', so I came over to help."

  Zhang Bo was moved and pulled him into the gatehouse, saying: "It's cold outside, don't rush to work, drink a bowl of hot tea to warm up first."

  Chen Zikun took out two paper packages and said: "I brought you two packs of tea leaves, they're not very good, just make do with them."

  It's not a good tea, just an ordinary jasmine tea, but it's still better than the high-end Gongfu that Zhang Bo usually drinks. At this time, Zhang Bo was moved again, he had only mentioned that he liked to drink tea, and the young man remembered it and bought two packages of tea leaves to show his respect. The value of the tea is not important, what's precious is this kind of respect for the elderly.

  Thinking of his two unfilial sons again, Zhang Bo couldn't help but feel more and more fond of Chen Zikun, wishing he had a daughter so that he could marry this young man as his son-in-law.

  After drinking enough tea, Zhang Bo led Chen Zikun to the backyard to remove manure. As they passed by the wing room, Chen Zikun deliberately glanced at Lin Wenjing's room and happened to see his crush sitting behind the window reading a book, and his heart suddenly thumped wildly.

  "Huh, aren't you that cart driver? How did you become a toilet cleaner again?" Lin Ma walked up to him, questioning, Chen Zikun's disguise had not escaped her sharp eyes.

  Zhang Bo quickly pulled Lin Ma to one side and explained in a low voice, saying that nowadays all the toilet cleaners in Beijing are unwilling to take our family's job, and Xiao Chen is kind enough to help us. If you drive him away, I won't be able to find another one.

  Lin's mother, although she had always disliked Chen Zikun, was also a clear-headed person. The toilet was filled with foul air and his wife had been complaining for a long time. If things continued like this, the unlucky one would be herself.

  So she quickly put on a smile: "Do you want me to lend a hand?"

  Two old men were there, so they didn't need her help, but Lin's mother still enthusiastically brought over a broom and dustpan, chatted for a bit, then slipped away to the side.

  In a typical siheyuan, there is no toilet. Residents go to the public toilets in the hutong, but Mr. Lin's family was from the south and were officials who worked in the government, so how could they possibly go outside and squeeze into the toilet with those common people? So the Lin family set up a toilet on the south side of the east wing, which is considered a "sha" position in feng shui terms, where the filthy air from the toilet can suppress it.

  The thatched cottage is just a small open-air house, with a brick-built toilet inside. During the day, you can go to the toilet directly in the thatched cottage, and at night, use a chamber pot in the room, then pour it into the thatched cottage, and let the sanitation workers take away these filthy things. Usually, the sanitation workers come once every three days, and during holidays, they come a bit slower, about 10 to 15 days apart. The sanitation workers will also take this opportunity to ask the owner's family for some money or red envelopes, which is indeed a common practice.

  The Ke family is from the south, and it's not their custom to give red envelopes to toilet cleaners. Zhang Bo had never looked down on people before, so he offended the toilet cleaner, which led to this situation. Zhang Bo isn't an old man who lives in a dog's body, he just has a bit of a temper. He understands that he can't escape responsibility for this matter, so he works hard to help Chen Zikun with his work.

  The population of the Lin's house is not large, so the output is not high either. It can't compare with the magnificent scenery in the outhouse of the Zi Guang Car Factory. Moreover, it's cold in winter and the filth is frozen hard. Using an iron shovel and a dung spoon to scoop it into a basket, then flushing it with water, sprinkling some lime on top, the old appearance of the outhouse has changed to a new look. Lin's mother came in to take a look and was immediately delighted.

  Zhang Bo was also very happy, and he stuffed the two silver dollars given by Mr. Lin into Chen Zikun's hands. Chen Zikun couldn't decline, so he accepted them and walked away with his manure basket on his back.

  Zhang Bo saw him off at the gate and watched as he disappeared into the distance, once again sighing in admiration: "What a fine young man!"

  Chen Zikun walked down the alley with a bucket of manure on his back, feeling carefree and refreshed, as if he had just eaten a cold watermelon on a sweltering summer day. He could finally enter and exit the Lin residence openly again, and it was all worth it to catch a glimpse of Miss Lin.

  He walked with excitement, unaware that a night soil collector came out of the public toilet by the road, looked at him suspiciously for half a day, then looked at the gate of Lin's house, seemed to understand something, and pushed the wheelbarrow away.

  The nightsoil collector returned to the nightsoil factory located near Beigong'an Bridge in the northern suburbs, close to Chouwai River. The area was desolate and inhabited by extremely poor people. Yu's nightsoil factory was set up here. The old Yu family were from Shandong Province and had been working as nightsoil collectors in Beijing since the Qianlong era, gradually growing into a large nightsoil factory with over ten nightsoil routes and hundreds of nightsoil workers under their management.

  The so-called "shit road" not only refers to the roads, waterways and alleys, but also to the resources of the shit industry. A hutong, a street block, is a shit road. In Beijing, there are thousands of people who make a living by removing human waste. If everyone went to other people's territories to remove waste, the rules would be chaotic. Therefore, there is a division of shit roads, and the shit workers from different shit roads absolutely cannot cross each other's boundaries, otherwise it will inevitably lead to bloody conflicts.

  The Shi Zha Ma Street belongs to Yu Ji's feces factory, and Yu De Shun is not very old, about 30 years old, in his prime. He usually doesn't sit in the factory all day, but personally carries a bucket of feces and a shovel to work. He is a man of honor, generous with his hands, and has good relationships with the police and health department. He takes care of his subordinates very well, and in Beijing's fecal industry, he is absolutely a number one figure. Some people even gave him a nickname "Feces King".

  Yu De Shun sat upright in the manure factory, watching the workers at work. On a large area of flat land, the manure was spread out to dry in the sun, drying into dry manure cakes that could be sold to farmers as fertilizer. If this process were not undergone, the price would have to be greatly discounted.

  The manure factory was filled with a suffocating stench, and ordinary people would faint upon entering. However, Yu De Shun had grown up in such an environment since childhood, and his sense of smell had long been immunized to it. To him, these filthy things were just like a layer of copper coins spread on the ground.

  The servant hurried over and reported: "Master Yu, something terrible has happened."

  Yu De Shun held the small teapot and drank tea with a gurgling sound, without frowning at all. What can't be settled by the King of Feces in Beijing? Ridiculous.

  "Just say it." Hard and straightforward, just one word.

  "Some people are snatching our business on Shi Zai Ma Street..." Fèn Fū recounted what he had seen, and upon hearing this, Yú Dé Shùn stood up, a cold smile spreading from the corners of his mouth. He put down the teapot and said, "Whoever dares to snatch our business must be tired of living."

  Yesterday, one of Yu's subordinates at the fertilizer factory got beaten up in a hutong behind Shi'er Ma Street. The reason for this was that Yu Deshun had already figured out that it was because his subordinate had a foul mouth and insulted an elderly person, so getting beaten up was what he deserved. Master Yu didn't plan on intervening, but the rules of Yu's fertilizer factory couldn't be broken: during holidays and festivals, they must give money for wine and red envelopes; whoever doesn't give it won't have their trash taken out, and no one else is allowed to take it out either, until that family gives in.

  Even if it's the thatched cottage of a wealthy family, the King of Feces treats everyone equally. For a long time, this trick has been unbeatable because no one is willing to spend money and have trouble with the feces remover for just a few small coins. But now, someone actually dares not to give face to the King of Feces, crossing boundaries to remove feces, which is utterly unbearable.

  "Take a good look, whose man is it, Li Fengji or Sun Xinggui?" Yu Deshun asked, the two names he mentioned were both prominent figures in the Beijing fertilizer industry and had never gotten along with him.

  "Yu Ye, I've taken a good look, it's not someone from the Li family or the Sun family, but rather one of the newcomers," replied Fenhong.

  "It's interesting, let's go and take a look." Yu De Shun waved his hand, and immediately several young and strong night soil workers stopped their work, holding their shovels and following Master Yu out.

  According to Yu De-shun's estimation, the people who came to grab the night soil would not just dig up one house, they had to grab all the night soil in the whole alley, so for a while they couldn't leave, maybe they could be blocked on the road.

  At this time, a group of people in the Zi Guangche factory were worried about the two baskets of human waste brought back by Da Kunzi. Everyone else was carrying rice, flour, grain, oil, melons, fruits and vegetables back home, but this master had brought back two big baskets of rice field dung, what kind of play is this?

  Xue Pingshun asked him: "Big pot, what are you doing this for? We don't have any land to fertilize."

  Chen Zikong said: "You misunderstood, I went to help someone clean the toilet."

  Xue Pingshun said, "Alright then, hurry up and pour it out. We can't use this, it's useless. Go and dump these two baskets of things into the toilet in the alley."

  Wang Dongliang, who was wiping the car nearby, hurried over, picked up two baskets and left. Unfortunately, he ran into Yu Deshun and his entourage, who were in a fierce mood, as soon as he walked out the door.

  The Feces King and his minions didn't rush to the Zi Guang Car Factory, but instead took a shortcut to Shi Zhe Ma Street, where they bumped into Wang Dongliang, who was carrying a night soil bucket on his back.

  Yu De Shun took one look and said, "You're really something, you little brat wants to snatch this piece of business too!" He immediately waved his hand: "Get him!"

  The dung husbands didn't say a word, and swung their dung spoons to hit him. Poor Wang Dongliang was confused and got beaten up, fell to the ground, and was covered in dung. The wooden dung spoon wasn't as effective as an iron tool for hitting people, but it was smelly and hard. The spoon had years of old dung accumulated inside, like a layer of armor, and being hit by it wasn't pleasant either.

  Wang Dongliang was beaten until he cried out, the people in the cart factory heard it and rushed out to see that someone had come to fight. A loud shout: "Brothers, get your tools!" The carters took their brooms, iron rakes and wooden sticks and rushed out to join forces with the night soil workers.

  The feces husband and the cart husband, both of whom were part of the labor force, fought each other without distinguishing between the strong and the weak. However, with Chen Zikun's participation, the outcome was basically a one-sided victory. A few minutes later, all of Yu Deshun's men were lying on the ground, and even the Feces King himself was kicked by Chen Zikun and almost couldn't get up.

  "Come to Ziguangche Factory to find trouble, and blind your dog's eyes." Chen Zikong cursed viciously.